Week 1 with 2 guides!!

We officially started school this week. Audrey and Ally began "second" grade with Bigger Hearts for His Glory and my little man Ian started preK with Little Hands to Heaven. Where has the time gone? I have three kids in school! I was very overwhelmed about handling two different levels along with a mobile baby but God brought me through, along with the advice from some fellow HOD moms on Facebook : )

Here our yearly first day of school photo! The kids were up early and excited to start the day. I came up with a block schedule to help break things up and get Ian's work in. It ended up working well and the kids got a 10 minute break after each block. Our day usually began between 8:00-8:30 and was done by 11:00.

Calendar, Prayer, and Pledges- ALL
Block 1: history, rotating, science, math - Girls (Work with Ian as girls work on their own)
Block 2: bible, poetry, music, English, handwriting, dictation, language
Block 3: story time, DITHOR, writing
Block 4: computer time, xtra math, piano practice, extras

Ian worked on unit 1 of  LHTH . He worked on the letter A, with the finger play Adam and the Animals as we studied creation. He did very well and could make a 1 and an A by the end of the week as well as recognize a capital A. He is still working on the lowercase. He also painted light and dark and took part in the girls art lesson as well as their science experiment and exploration activity. He was excited about school and I am praying it continues this year!

The girls worked on unit 1 of BHFHG and eased right into it, no half speed! I was unsure how they would do but I am so happy and proud for them.

Bible: Proverbs 2:3-6  We studied and applied it all week along with the trait of persistence. I also had the girls copy the verse, which I was not planning on doing. We did it on HWOT paper. The Little Pillows devotion was a bit dull. Last year we quit those early but I wanted to give it another try this year.

Poetry: "Four By the Clock" We studied the poem itself and looked at how it was written and learned about lines and stanzas and rhyming couplets.

Language: We are using the recommended Preparing to Build level 2. It was way easy this week and I am hoping it gets into new content for the girls. We did it all orally since it was review.

Dictation: This was new for all of us and the girls seemed to catch on once I taught it right : ) We did the first two passages and my lower speller did WONDERFUL!

Music: Audrey and Ally both LOVE the CD and book Hymns for a Kid's Heart! They have been singing Holy, Holy, Holy, all day..in their room, the car, at meals, in school! Such a Blessing!

Handwriting: We are using Handwriting Without Tears, power printing plus. The girls are not ready for cursive so we chose to review print and maybe pick up cursive in January. They love using the HWOT paper for bible verse and dictation! We managed to get 7 lessons done instead of the 5 I had planned!

Story time: We are reading Ben and Me, and I cannot tell you how much of a cute book it is! The girls are enjoying it and I find that even Ian likes to listen in. We read and did the suggested HOD activities. Last year I skipped over these for most of the year but toward the end I started doing them and seeing how beneficial they really are. They don't take much time and the girls really learn from them.


DITHOR: This is our first time using this and I am pleased. We are doing our biography to go along with Bigger and keep things simple. The girls are both reading about Amelia Earhart. They like having their own reading calendar to keep up with! Audrey is doing so much better on her reading and I am very proud of her! Ally is still reading up a storm and I can't keep enough books in the house for her!

Writing: I do my own writing. We worked on some about me things and reviewed writing a good sentence which went with our language. On Friday the girls do a journal entry and this week they had to write about their first week of school. I love reading these and seeing what they liked and what they didn't. One thing we did was answer questions about the first day of school and I will give them another sheet like it for the final day of school and we will compare answers.


Math: We do Singapore math and the girls are on book 2B. We did alot of review of adding and subtracting and using our skills of the part/total method. I bought the HIG  (home instructors guide) and textbook to use this year. This week we didn't need it, so I am praying it was not a waste and will get used later on. The girls managed to do an extra two lessons this week!

Science: We are using the book One Small Square: Seashore's. My kids have never been to the beach so a lot of this is new to them but they like it. They did well on the narration. It was not perfect but it is our starting point and will only get better. We also did an experiment with sinking and floating and watched a Magic School Bus DVD to go along with it. We did an exploration activity to find out what causes waves.

History/Geography: Columbus was our focus this week and his discovery. We read about him, discussed, and looked at maps and even made a balloon globe! The girls thought it was neat how people used to think about the world. They loved making the balloon globes! We also did a notebook activity and made a map and I happy with how the girls did considering we are not very artsy! We also watched a DVDS ON Columbus. 

Art: We used color to explore mid line, foreground, and back ground. The kids did well and even Ian joined in.

We had no co op this week or sports just piano lessons. It was a good week but busy! Here is a copy of my plans for the week! It is my checklist for the week and so easy to do!

                    

                                            
                           Audrey and Ally’s Weekly Homeschool Lesson Plans 2014/2015          

Week of                                                             Unit # 1    Topic Columbus Discovers America

	Day 1                Day 2                    Day 3                   Day 4                Day 5
Prayer, Calendar
Language		p. 10-11	p. 12-13	p. 14-15	p. 16-17	p. 18-19
Bible		Verse:   Proverbs 2;3-6 Persistence             Devotion: Little Pillows p. 77-79
Poetry		Four By the Clock by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Dictation		Passage 1	Passage 1		Passage 2	Review
DITHOR		Biography Kickoff!	Day 1 Pre reading activity with chosen books	Day 2 Story Discussion and Vocabulary	Day 3 Story Element: Character Traits  Listen Character Web p. 3	Day 4Godly Traits: responsibility and diligence
HWOT		p.30 shake hands	Song #9	Stomp feet p. 33	p.32 and 37	Song #1
Read Aloud		Title: Ben and Me      Genre:  Biography     Story Element:  character      Trait: Responsibility
Writing		About me brainstorm/draw	Complete Sentences p 19	Ending sentences p. 20	Write  a letter to self  open on last day	Journal: Tell about first week
Math		Missing parts  TB 6-8	Missing Whole TB 8-9 WB Ex1	Make 100 TB 9-10  WB Ex 2	Practice TB 11 Ex 1A
Science		Seashores p. 6-7 Retell/ Narrate	Notebook high and low tides	Seashores p. 8-9 Experiment	Seashores p. 10-11Narrate/Retell	Seashores p. 12-13 Experiment
Art			Paint a horizon
Geography		Using a Globe
History		First Book of American History p. 1-3 A round world	First Book of American History p. 4-6 King and Queen Help	First Book of American History p. 7-11 VOCABULARY!!!	Journeys in Time p. 8-9 Land Label a balloon!	Notebook: Make a map Timeline Entry
Music		Kids Heart Vol.1 Track 1 “Holy, Holy,Holy” Pages 15-16 and 18 and Piano Practice
Extra’s		Technology	Liberty Co op	Piano Lessons	PE	PE /Technology

Ian’s Lessons	Ian’s speech
Letter Aa Bible/Activity Genesis and creation Finger Play Adam and the Animals Music: Track 3 Count on Me:
	Rotating Number 1, paint,	ETC/HWOT

Weekly Notes: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Curriculum Resources: Heart of Dakota: Bigger Hearts for His Glory, Singapore Math,  Handwriting Without Tears, Internet, Library, Drawn Into The Heart of Reading, Preparing to Build English 2, Heart of Dakota: Little Hands to Heaven, Get Ready for the Code